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'Journey' Review: Making Video Games Beautiful

Journey shows us not only that games can be an art form, but that video game consumers have an appetite for something more than just the next big first person shooter.

It’s hard to describe Thatgamecompany’s simple, brilliant game Journey with words. After all, the game itself has none. Journey tells its beautiful story without a line of dialogue either spoken or written out.

It’s also hard not to think of Roger Ebert’s claim that video games don’t qualify as art. Specifically, Ebert said “ that no video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form.”

In the same piece, Ebert discusses Thatgamecompany’s previous title, Flower, a game he dismisses without playing.

I would urge Mr. Ebert to play Journey.

That it is art is not beyond dispute—few people agree on what qualifies a work as such. But to this writer and video gamer, Journey is some of the most powerful, beautiful, and awe-inspiring art I’ve ever witnessed or interacted with (since games are an interactive art form.)

I was hesitant about playing Journey. I didn’t want to be let down. I’d heard many good things about the game, but refused to read any reviews or synopsis of it for fear of having some important element spoiled.

I’m reasonably talented when it comes to ignoring things, so I managed to get away with just the occasional brief glimpse of a screenshot or advertisement here or there.

I worried that the game was too well received, that it would turn out to be all visuals and no gameplay, that it would be artsy indie stuff that leaned too heavily on its style at the expense of the game.

Why not worry? Games at all levels from AAA blockbusters to small independent releases have made a crutch out of special effects, cinematics, and other non-interactive means of storytelling.

Fortunately, my concerns were utterly unfounded.

Journey is very much a game. In many respects it is a near-perfect game, utilizing all of the medium’s strengths and relying on none of its weaknesses to enthrall players and tell its brief but emotionally moving story. Even its brevity works in its favor, as it becomes an experience you can and should have in just one sitting.

Journey is beautiful. Floating across the wide expanse of desert, or sliding down a dune through rippling sunlight and liquid sand, one can’t help but catch one’s breath and soak in the splendor of it all.

The music, written by Austin Wintory, is among the best in any video game I’ve played, not just because it’s lovely and evocative, but because it mirrors so perfectly your every action, struggle, or moment of joy.

Here’s a video of the Macedonia Radio Symphonic Orchestra playing some of the score:

Game First

But wouldn’t all this work just as well as a silent, animated film? After all, in Journey you never fight. You don’t score points or compete with anyone. You don’t make meaningful choices or venture about an open world. There is no clear set of goals or obstacles to achieve or overcome.

My answer to this question is a flat-out “No.” The game would not work just as well as a silent, animated film (even if that film would be remarkable itself.) The fact that it has become the most downloaded game on the PlayStation Network surely proves how much it’s appreciated as a member of this particular type of media.

More importantly, Journey is meant to be experienced rather than observed. This is true of all games, or at least it ought to be true of all games. Certainly we observe a great deal while we play, as video games are a visual and audible artform, but it’s the actions we take in the game itself that make it so much fun.

Journey tells its story through its gameplay and visuals, including a few brief cutscenes, and never directs us from some out-of-game place. There is no tutorial, no “Mash X” that pops up on screen, nobody telling you where you’re going or why. The storytelling is purely about the game experience itself.

Exploration, Awe, and Danger

But what an odd game it is. None of the puzzles are terribly challenging. They’re not intended to confound so much as they are to give the landscape its true depth, to provide meat to the exploration. To make it an adventure as well as a pilgrimage.

Lighting up ribbons to create bridges, or ducking behind stones to avoid the gusts of wind, or leaping through the air between floating ribbon jellyfish—these are not terribly complicated maneuvers, and yet they’re incredibly rewarding.

Even just sliding and floating down a huge corridor of flowing sand is a breathtaking experience, and being in control of how you make that descent causes it to be not merely a visual feast or something to observe, but something that is actively fun to do.

The beauty of the earlier levels makes the darker levels all the more terrifying. You are not a warrior in the game. You are prey, not predator, and when the stone dragons come you have no option but to flee or hide. On your first playthrough, this comes as something of a shock. Up to this point, all was peaceful. Your journey was unmarred by enemies. Your obstacles were benign.

But the cave and the subsequent windswept, snow-covered heights are deadly and dangerous, and while these areas are still gorgeous, they’re filled with tension and struggle.

Few games capture struggle the way Journey does. Climbing those last heights, being wounded by the dragons, hiding and clawing your way forward into the buffeting gales with nothing but an increasingly short magical cape to aid you—the sense of struggle is palpable. Even in the way your faceless avatar bends against the wind, or falls to the earth shows just how perilous and difficult this pilgrimage has become.

Which brings us to the other unique aspect of the game—its multiplayer component.

The Loneliest Number

I didn’t know anything about Journey going in, and it was surprising when another player appeared. Nameless, this player looked just like mine, but I could tell instantly that it was another person and not some computer AI.

Isn’t that remarkable in and of itself, that we can tell simply by how an onscreen avatar moves around the world that it’s a human and not a pre-programmed part of the game?

Isn’t it fascinating that we can sniff out one another’s humanity with no voice chat, no names or handles, no dialogue or form of communication beyond the little musical chirpings that comprise the only thing near to speech we find in the game?

Journey is a game that you begin on your own, and one that—for a while—you may continue to play on your own. But at least in my experience, it’s not a game you will finish alone.

I made it through the entire desert and much of the cave without relying on the aid of a companion. I didn’t even realize for a while that proximity with another traveler could refill my cape’s power. That mechanic I discovered partly out of necessity, and I’m still a bit stunned at how brilliant it is. This reliance on one another that’s programmed into the game is what makes it so captivating.

As I began to climb the final slopes and the wind and the dragons became more dire and my own situation more desperate, I found myself and this other anonymous person clinging to one another as we moved up the slope.

When I was tossed aside by a dragon, left lying half-broken in the snow, the other traveler ran back for me. We climbed together.

At this point, the idea of climbing alone had vanished from my thoughts entirely even though so often in games the solo route is the one I take.

In a way that no other multiplayer game has done, I felt the necessity of companionship in Journey. In literally no MMO I’ve ever played have I felt that need, but in Journey that sense of struggle feeds directly into a sense of camaraderie. It’s deeply affecting. The whole game is moving in a way I don’t yet fully understand.

Walking slowly into the light at the top of the mountain—Mount Doom, my wife jokingly referred to it as—next to that other player. I was nearly speechless.

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It is a great game. In fact, I’ve seen an argument from the Extra Credits people that it’s an almost pure incarnation of the Joseph Campbell “Hero’s Journey” myth that shows up over and over again in fiction and stories, and I’m inclined to agree.

That desert screenshot is definitely one of the more beautiful segments of the game. I had it as my computer wallpaper for a long time.

No argument needed, they’ve even stated publicly how it influenced the game. Here’s a quote: “So what we did was borrowed the Hero’s Journey, Joseph’s Campbell’s work, and the three-act structure from filmmaking, the transformation of the character. So you get two players who will go through the transformation of life together.”

In fact, one could take Journey as a sort of tribute to the concept overall, hence the name. I think that’s why it’s so archetypal. The game is about the structure of narrative itself, instead of about a specific narrative.

I was thoroughly disappointed with Journey, to be fair. It’s a game that relies more on feels and social interaction than providing a solid gameplay experience. For me, that’s not really how one should make video games at all.

Sure, the game is beautiful, the graphics are amazing, and the soundtrack is a joy to listen to, but when gameplay fails to deliver, I kinda get the impressions you’re left with a sour taste, unless you really let yourself enrapture by the emotional experience. Even then, it feels more like you’re watching a movie than playing a video game.

I feel the real problem here, is that Journey could’ve been both beautiful and fun to play. The potential is there. The concept and the core ideas for a great game are there. They were simply poorly translated to gameplay.

Even with the current simplistic controls, there are dozens of ways the gameplay could’ve been expanded into something lenghtier, more engaging and far more entertaining to play with others. Why they didn’t even bothered really goes beyond me. For me Journey will always go down on history as a perfect example on how to waste huge amounts of potential.

I feel combat might have harmed the pacing of the game, so it’s best to be left without it, but what I believe the game REALLY lacks is a deeper puzzle / mystery component.

One game Journey really reminded me of was Lucasarts’ Loom. They’re so close in certain aspects that sometimes I like to believe thatgamecompany used it as an inspiration. Both games have a similar premise, a similar setting and even a particular aspect of gameplay which I find very alike. The difference is that Loom is a puzzle game. It forces you to think about the solutions for your problems, and apply the gameplay mechanics around it, in an intelligent and clever way, despite the technological limitations of the era in which it was released.

Had Journey featured this kind of element, a true puzzle element which would make players feel they were achieving something along the way, while also supporting the whole mythos of spiritual travels based on solving problems through reasoning and knowledge, while learning something from it (i.e the true goal of spiritual journeys = the journey itself, and not the outcome), it could’ve been twice or even thrice the game it is, especially if you think of the possibilities of cooperative gameplay to help solve puzzles or bypass certain obstacles more easily. And speaking of obstacles that takes me to my second point:

For a game that is based on the mythological theme of initiatic / spiritual journey, it surely feels linear and easy to finish. I agree when you said it conveys the notion of struggle, but when there’s hardly any punishment involved, it doesn’t feel like that much of a struggle at all. There are not enough obstacles in-game to make a more cold-hearted player feel engaged. What you have instead are “annoyances” which rather feel minor detours, that don’t really force the player to “think around” the problem at hand. Add that to a surprisingly empty and linear level design, and you have a game that’s far more shallow than it first appears to be.

And that’s what I don’t really like about Journey. It’s a game that bets too much on striking the player’s heartstrings, without caring much about delivering anything else. It works really well, if one is susceptible to this kind of stuff, but if you happen to be an overthinker such as myself, it’s not hard to be completely underwhelmed by what Journey has to offer. For a game whose central metaphor is supposed to be about achieving wisdom, Journey surely seems to be lacking on it, by the way it treats the player. This is really what staggers me the most, given the core concept of the game, and what it intended to achieve.

Well, by pacing I didn’t mean “how long the game takes” but rather “how quick action feels”. In a game like this, combat seems like a frenetic event that would easily feel out of place, and break the flow of the game. Puzzles are a wholly different matter. They might take longer, but they also give you more time to think, to notice little details, to explore nooks and crannies you might have otherwise ignored (something which happened a lot on old graphic adventures). They also vary a lot on depth a complexity, and can easily be adjusted to the pacing you’re looking for.

Again, Loom is a prime example on how much better Journey could have been, on this matter. Its puzzles have just the right difficulty to keep you entertained without annoying you, and the core of its gameplay plays exactly with the element that should’ve been more developed in Journey: activating things through musical notes.

I must agree with you there that some deeper puzzle and so on could be more fun… but remember that you are supposed to have the ability to start and finish the game with the same companion. so if this would make the game any longer that would be a problem. Also it would become a bit boring and you would be dragged out from the main point of the game if it was to be three times it’s original length. like loom we have limbo as well..and those games are there for the puzzle. the puzzle is what the game play is based on. that is what’s makes the game interesting and fun. I don’t know about loom but limbo is a single layer game. and therefore I greatly understand why it focus of puzzles because the multiplier opinion is a great part of why journey is like it is.

And you are right about them betting too much on striking the players heartstrings that anything else… because they do. but when you think about it… there isn’t really any other game that does. And that’s what’s a bit interesting about this game. These people came up with something new for a change. something quite original compared to all the mainstream games who sells best today.

This game tells a story. and it would just be annoying to have too many puzzles ruining what really is the main point..to travel along with a friend and find out about the past. there is something you also can learn from this game… no matter who you are or where you are from it doesn’t matter. we are equal and we can become friends and together we can get through.

Also players ARE achieving something through the game by trying a bit harder, You can achieve goblets, also if you find all the glowing marks you will achieve something wonderful that makes you a white cloak, for you to show off as a guide for new players, or players who also seek the white cloak. It also makes it easier and also more enjoyable for you to play the game. and if you want to play as the normal traveler you can do that as well.

what knowledge do you want to achieve by playing a game? how to use a gun? the square root of 64? how to survive in the desert? what is it that other games teaches about knowledge. that this doesn’t?

I however found out that even though I played with someone I may not get along with, we made it through. I saw an example of what war can do to a beautiful land. I made a friend. even though the world might look beautiful from up here, through your eyes. That’s only whats on the surface. things like this is the game’s main focus. and if you don’t like that. that’s fine. Its not the game you might have thought it was. and you didn’t like it and that is okay.

but did the game tell you that the only reason for you to play the game is to reach the mountain? If you think so then there is a greatly misunderstanding about the concept of this game. the outcome of the game isn’t important. but the journey is. the beautifullness of the world, and under lurks a dark and evil truths. this is why people keep playing it. they have understood that it’s the journey that is important. they want to experience the journey itself. they want experience it again and again…each time with a new stranger.

About the struggle part..I think it is more of feeling the character’s struggle and pain more than you struggling with moving a rock, or passing an annoyingly difficult level. you are supposed to feel like the character is a part of you. And you shall feel or understand the great struggle this traveler has by traveling through the desert avoiding the evilness of the past. If you can feel the struggle of your character while you not necessarily are struggling yourself…I say that is something.

So I understand that people become so emotional over this game since most games people have played wont leave you with such strong emotion…(if it leaves you with any emotion at all)

>but remember that you are supposed to have the ability to start and finish the game with the same companion.

Personally I think it would be far more interesting to share a more lengthier game with many companions, than spending merely 2 hours with the same.

>I don’t know about loom but limbo is a single layer game. and therefore I greatly understand why it focus of puzzles because the multiplier opinion is a great part of why journey is like it is.

You seem to be forgetting puzzle games vary greatly in shape and form. Limbo is pure trial & error a la Another World, Heart of Darkness, Flashback, etc. Loom is a graphic adventure. Even so, the point I made is that Journey should be more like X, but that it should actually try to be little more developed and innovative gameplay-wise.

>there isn’t really any other game that does.

There are. Hundreds of ‘em. From RPGs to visual novels, there are plenty of games that do that, sometimes with even more emphasis than Journey. My point was not that this was a wrong thing to do. It isn’t. At all. What I meant is that you can have BOTH an emotional experience AND great gameplay, and Journey fails a lot on the latter.

>Also players ARE achieving something through the game by trying a bit harder, You can achieve goblets, also if you find all the glowing marks you will achieve something wonderful that makes you a white cloak,

That’s classic artificial replayability, and in my opinion, one of the oldest and worse tricks in the book to make the player go through the whole game again.

>what knowledge do you want to achieve by playing a game? how to use a gun? the square root of 64? how to survive in the desert? what is it that other games teaches about knowledge. that this doesn’t?

I never said anything about that. I argued about knowledge and initiatic symbolism because that is Journey’s THEME. Usually if you’re making a game about something, you have to be sure that every element is in tune. Art must reflect gameplay, which must reflect the theme, that must be reflected on level design. If there’s a mismatch between any of these, it means your game is lacking in one of these fields. Again, the point is not about learning anything: it’s merely that the core mechanics and level design don’t match the environments and artwork of the game. Learn the difference.

>but did the game tell you that the only reason for you to play the game is to reach the mountain? If you think so then there is a greatly misunderstanding about the concept of this game.

If you read my previous post, I actually discussed this matter in detail when I talked about the symbolism of initiatic journeys: the real goal is the journey itself, and not the outcome. The problem with the Journey is that the Journey ITSELF is actually fairly shallow. The game’s a walking simulator that expects you to have feelings based on social interaction and by observing the landscape. This is all nice and interesting but (and here come the personal opinions) I don’t think that’s how a video game should be. Video games are not theme park rides or virtual sculpture gardens. Gameplay comes first, and the rest is accessory. Again, I’m not opposing to having a game focused on provoking feelings, I think that’s perfectly fine, as long as you still keep a good and challenging gameplay at the core. Journey doesn’t do that. That’s all.

>So I understand that people become so emotional over this game since most games people have played wont leave you with such strong emotion…(if it leaves you with any emotion at all)

The problem here is that Journey was the first truly emotional game most people of this generation played, because it was the first one to be heavily marketed for consoles in a long time, and now they’re shitting bricks all over it. This happened the same way nearly 15 years ago, when the previous generation first got their hands on Metal Gear Solid. The difference is that Metal Gear Solid is a game that has both a very emotional plot and fantastic gameplay. Journey is an interesting social experience, the same way psychological studies on emotion, flasmobs, and social network phenomemons are. But as a videogame, it is lacking. You can achieve a similar result via virtual sculpture gardens with a multiplayer feature, provided the level design and the music are pretty enough to move the users. It still doesn’t make ‘em good videogames.